Shameless Promotion

I got the monthly automatically generated newsletter from my friend Scott Riggan this morning. Nothing usually great about most of these sort of messages, but I'm always encouraged when I read about what Scott's up to - or rather, what God is up to with Scott.

Back in a previous life, Scott was part of a group called the nobodys with my friend Ben. They were a very successful independent band in the late 90s. [I recorded and played some gigs with them for a while - from glamorous stuff like the Nashville Heart Association Christmas party(!) to humdrum GMA week showcases and Christian music festivals.] Ahh... I digress: the nobodys got a record deal and kept going for a while, but God directs our lives more than we like to admit sometimes and Scott and Ben laid the band to rest.

As is often the case in God's kingdom, the passing of one thing leads to bigger and better things arising from the ashes. Ben is the Worship and Arts guy at Common Ground Church near Seattle - a church that he helped plant. It was my friendship with Ben and our weekly accountability meetings that prepared me to answer God's call in a way I had never previously considered.

And then there's Scott. He moved to Emmett, Idaho (pop. 5,987 - salute!) and continued his career as a solo artist. He's had some good success on the radio, but the really great and grand success is what God is doing through him in international missions. He's worked with The Jesus Film Project in Africa, and done two tours in China at the behest of the government - singing explicitly Christian songs (with the possible exception of "Sweet Home Alabama").

So - props to Scott and praise to God. Go to Scott's website and buy some stuff or just send him some money. Most importantly, pray for him. Pray for all those who are out in the wilds of the Kingdom, expanding its frontiers. Pray that God will raise up more willing adventurers like Scott and do even wackier things through them.

Just in case anyone's still interested...

I'm still here. Between the Christmas onslaught, New Year's resolutions (one of which was NOT to update my blog on a regular basis), a new semester of college, and a couple weeks of sickness rampaging through my family, blogging has lost most of the appeal it had at one time.

I am, however, reading John Caparoon's blog regularly. I'm especially interested in his thoughts on "how we do church" and particularly communion. I'm more and more longing to see the centrality of the Word (not neccessarily preaching) and the Table restored in Christian worship. The historical perspective of the Restoration movement would certainly give prominence to the Word and Table in our congrgational worship, but I'm afraid that we may have substituted preaching for the reading of the Word and that our rugged individualist tendencies may have robbed our communion time of any horizontal dimensions (i.e. it's all "me 'n' Jesus).

SO - if there's anyone out there who's still reading this - what say ye?